Brahms - Theme and Variations, Op. 18 (Krystian Zimerman)

Theme and Variations in D minor for Piano Solo (Arranged from the second movement of the Sextet, Op. 18).
Before the final revisions and publishing of the String Sextet in B-flat, Clara Schumann heard Brahms trying it out. Especially impressed with the variation movement, she ardently requested that Brahms make a piano arrangement. He did this, presenting it to her as a birthday greeting in 1860, two years before the Sextet was published.
While the arrangement is performed frequently and Brahms himself seems to have been particularly fond of it, it has attracted negative criticism as a piece of piano music. In attempting to retain most of the music written for six instruments while transferring it to two hands, Brahms asked for several awkward techniques, including many wide rolled chords and anticipatory bass notes jumping to the upper harmonies. He also assigned a great deal of harmony to the right hand, asking it to split chords with the left hand under the melody, which makes voicing and projection of the melody itself difficult. Continuity of inner voices is also made difficult by the many jumps. The rushing scales in variation 3 are far more effective on cello strings than on piano keys. In general, the piece demands a performer with very large hands.
If played with sensitivity, the arrangement can be highly effective and virtuosic, although it is certainly inferior to the idiomatic original version for strings, where it also serves as part of a greater whole.
Andante, ma moderato. D MINOR, 2/4 time.
[m. 1] Theme, Part 1. The right hand plays the middle-range melody as well as the top parts of the supporting chords. The florid decorations from the original are retained. Part 1 ends on a half close.
[m. 9] Theme, Part 1, Varied Repeat. The melody moves up an octave. The supporting chords are now all rolled. Brahms preserves the rhythmic viola gestures, requiring large jumps in both hands to cover the off-beat notes and the top parts of harmonies. Some bass notes toward the end must be played as anticipations right before the left hand jumps to an inner line.
[m. 17] Theme, Part 2. The second phrase of the theme requires the right hand to reach higher, leaving the left hand to play widely spaced intervals that must be rolled by those with smaller hands. More "anticipatory" bass notes jumping to the inner line occur near the cadence.
[m. 25] Theme, Part 2, Varied Repeat. Again, the melody moves up an octave and the supporting chords are all rolled. Because of the more upward reaching melody, even larger jumps are required here.
[m. 33] Variation 1. The right hand plays the "deconstructed" melody as it moves from the middle register to the upper register, taking the roles of all the instruments to whom it is passed in the original. The main beats and some off beats are punctuated with rolled chords. The quick downward motion at the end is passed to the left hand.
[m. 49] Variation 2. The forceful triplet rhythm in two-note harmony is passed between the right and left hands. The latter must leap up from initial downbeat chords. The pianist's technique for rapid repeated thirds, sixths, and other intervals is tested here. In the second half, which is more gentle, the right hand plays the expressive line in "straight" rhythm, while the left hand, playing in the middle register, presents the rapidly repeated chords in triplet rhythm. More anticipatory bass notes add to the difficulty of the left hand part.
[m. 65] Variation 3. The left hand plays the rushing, arching scales, while the right hand plays two-chord responses. In the second half, the left hand scales are all ascending, requiring large jumps downward between them. The right hand joins on the cascading downward passage at the very end. The original octave doubling between the cellos on these rushing scales is not practical on the piano, and is only preserved at the beginning of each run and at the tops of the arching lines.
[m. 81] Variation 4. A dramatic shift to the major key (still on the same keynote, D, as is typical with “modal shifts” in variation movements). The warm, expressive variation is quite effective on the piano. The melody must be well voiced above the descending harmonies in the middle voices. The first statement of the melody is in the middle range.
[m. 113] Variation 5. This variation remains in the major key. After the swell of emotion at the end of the last variation, it is suddenly very quiet. The right hand moves to the upper middle register to play a variant of the melody and a repeated “pedal point” D in the middle of the piano. The right hand plays very high two-note responses, usually in thirds descending an octave. This is a “music box” effect.
[m. 129] Coda. The theme is presented in its original minor-key form and the right hand plays echoing figures with a rolled-chord harmony, imitating plucked strings. The last chords in the major-key cadence are played by the left hand.

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the theme is growing on me over the past few days

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Bravo